Friday, 6 August 2010

Short is the little time which remains to thee of life. Live as on a mountain. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

The journey of creating music with people in a live setting is the closest I have come to experiencing a universal truth on a consistent basis. While the music usually has a personal meaning for each person involved in experiencing it, everyone shares in the witnessing of its creation through the act of collective listening.

I have reached a point in my life where it is time to take deeper and more mindful steps along the road I have been traveling since I first started creating and performing music as a child. For me, music has become a vehicle and facilitator in the search for a greater truth about ourselves.Almost everybody walks around with a vast burden of imaginary limitations inside his head. While the burden remains, personal success is as difficult to achieve as the conquest of Everest with a sack of rocks tied to your back.J. H. Brennan, author

So why 365 days?

24 hours is one day. A day represents one complete rotation of our planet earth on its axis. 365 days represent one complete revolution of the earth around the sun. We call this complete orbit a year. All of our lives are measured in years. The seasons, birthdays, and holidays come around every year, without fail. Perhaps we live in circles of 365 degrees, not 360?

I believe that we carry meaningful experiences within our flesh, our words, our actions. We carry meaningful people within our hearts. Creating music in diverse settings with people from a wide variety of backgrounds over 365 consecutive days will be a journey of discovery. The music will reflect the experiences and cumulative energy gathered over the year. My hope for the audience (whom I consider collaborators), other musicians who participate, and myself is that this journey will lead to an increased understanding of the nature of music, humanity, and individual identity. It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.Edmund Hillary (first to successfully climb Mount Everest in 1953)